President Trump’s Pick for Treasury Secretary – Update

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Important update at the end

Donald Trump picked a genius investor to run the Treasury. Given our disastrous debt and other issues, he needs the best person. He chose Scott Bessent, and hopefully, he is the best choice. However, he has a checkered past.

President Trump seemed to be leaning toward his friend Howard Lutnick for the position, and Elon Musk supported Lutnick as well. Robert Kennedy supported Lutnick.

Allegedly, Bessent has a broader background and is more qualified for this job.

There are concerns about him on the right because he worked with George Soros at Soros’s Management Fund in 2006. Armin Rosen published a report on Bessent at Tablet. Bessent is also accused of leading the collapse of the British pound.

However, the Trumps consider him a family friend and have known him for thirty years.

Steve Deace of Blaze TV wrote on X a quote from someone who knows Bessent:

“Been seeing a lot of concern about Scott Bessent on the right. I had a couple interactions with him while he was the CIO of Soros’ family office. One thing I do know about him is he is very smart and doesn’t share the same political beliefs as George (he’s more of a traditional fiscal conservative, no idea where he is socially). He is almost certainly not one of us, but I will be shocked if he isn’t lightyears better than anything we’ve had in decades because he’s genuinely concerned about the national debt and is an incredible investor and understands markets and market cycles. I know a lot of people that are close to him and they all have glowing things to say about him. Just my 2 cents given the amount of angst I’m seeing online.”

Musk and Kennedy Wanted Howard Lutnick.

Musk, who has been advising Trump on personnel, wrote on X, his social media platform, that Lutnick would “enact change.”

Musk wrote: “Would be interesting to hear more people weigh in on this for @realDonaldTrump to consider feedback. My view fwiw [for what it’s worth] is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change. Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need to change one way or another.”

Asked for comment, Trump transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, “President-elect Trump is making decisions on who will serve in his second Administration. Those decisions will continue to be announced by him when they are made,” says the WSJ.

A spokeswoman for Bessent didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk didn’t return emails seeking comment.

Bessent on Trump Policies

According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump’s next Treasury secretary could be one of the most consequential members of his cabinet. The Treasury chief would play a central role in crafting the 2025 tax overhaul legislation and would likely be a key interlocutor with foreign leaders in trade negotiations.

Musk, some of the people explained, has argued to Trump that if Lutnick were to become Treasury secretary, he would be someone who can work better with financial institutions, including the big banks on Wall Street. Earlier this week, Lutnick caught wind of Trump’s allies that he might not become Treasury Secretary and turned to Musk to help him get the job, these people said. Another person said Lutnick didn’t ask Musk to endorse him publicly, reports the WSJ.

Musk’s public support for Lutnick comes after Bessent’s supporters reached out to the SpaceX CEO to endorse their preferred candidate for Treasury secretary, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

WSJ reports that Technology executive and Trump ally Palmer Luckey, the founder of defense technology company Anduril Industries, commented on Bessent. “Luckey on X pointed to Bessent’s past work with an investment fund founded by George Soros and alleged the longtime investor isn’t a fan of Trump’s policies. Bessent was the chief investment officer at Soros Fund Management from 2011 to 2015.”

Forbes had a different take.

UPDATE

After we published this, we saw this information on Forbes. Mr. Bessent hasn’t spoken to Soros in years.

Bessent reportedly met with Trump on Friday at the latter’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, according to Bloomberg and the Washington Post, citing anonymous sources, a meeting that comes as one of Bessent’s top challengers, former National Economic Council chief Larry Kudlow, reportedly told Trump he does not want a cabinet position, Bloomberg reported.

A South Carolina native and 1984 graduate of Yale University, the 62-year-old Bessent is the founder of the hedge fund Key Square Management, which had less than $600 million in assets under management as of the end of 2023.

Bessent worked for Soros from 1991 to 2000, rising to the firm’s head of European allocation by his departure, and returned to Soros from 2011 to 2015 as the fund’s chief investment officer, departing again to run Key Square with a $2 billion investment from the 94-year-old Soros (the Wall Street Journal reports Bessent hasn’t talked to his former boss Soros “in years”).

A key advisor to Trump on economic policy, Bessent donated about $3 million to Trump and other Republican causes this election cycle, calling Trump “very sophisticated on economic policy” compared to the “economic illiterate” Harris in an interview with Forbes last week.

“I think he’d be outstanding” as Treasury Secretary, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., toldSemafor about Bessent on Thursday, adding he spoke to Trump’s transition team about installing Bessent at the top economic post.

In a column published Friday by Fox News, Bessent went to bat for tariffs, calling the controversial import taxes at the center of Trump’s economic policy proposals a “negotiating tool with our trading partners,” pushing back on “absurd” criticism of the tariffs largely viewed by economists as inflationary, pointing to the potential for higher revenue brought in by the U.S. Treasury, the department Bessent could soon head.


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